{"id":356656,"date":"2026-06-11T19:30:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T19:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/356656\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T19:30:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T19:30:07","slug":"make-out-room-owner-says-hes-leaving-the-biz-with-his-liver-intact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/356656\/","title":{"rendered":"Make-Out Room owner says he\u2019s leaving the biz with his liver intact"},"content":{"rendered":"

A pair of Mission District institutions, The Make Out Room at 3225 22nd St. and the Latin American Club<\/a> at 3286 22nd St., are up for sale.<\/p>\n

Marty Rapalski, their owner, says he\u2019s been thinking about retiring for 15 years, and is ready to move on and do something else. \u201cIt\u2019s a younger person\u2019s game,\u201d Rapalski told Mission Local. \u201cIt needs some fresh blood and new eyes. It\u2019s time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rapalski moved to the Mission in 1989, he said, and quickly became obsessed with the neon sign hanging above a bar called El Mariachito. It read \u201cLatin American Club,\u201d and showed a horse drinking out of a cocktail glass. <\/p>\n

In 1993, he bought El Mariachito from its then-owner,\u00a0Ramon Luna, and re-named it. \u201cI just changed it back to the Latin American club because I wanted to keep the sign.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 30 years later, the sign remains,\u00a0and it is still common to see mariachi musicians come into the bar and serenade patrons for cash.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Three years later, Rapalski bought another bar down the street, called\u00a0 the Transfer Club, from Walter Castillo, and renamed it the Make Out Room, after a rumored area in the back of another neighborhood bar (then the Skyscraper<\/a>, now Las Margaritas), where waitstaff would\u00a0 take drunken customers and relieve them of their money.<\/p>\n

The Make Out Room became the third point of \u201cThe Bermuda Triangle,\u201d a legendary trifecta that included Revolution Cafe<\/a> and Cava 22<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The Make Out room, a bar and event venue, became known for hosting musicians like Jonathan Richman, who does a yearly residency. Other big names, like Tracy Chapman and Norah Jones, have also played there.<\/p>\n

Rapalski has plans not only to leave the business, but the country, he said. His dad is from Winnipeg, and he\u2019s\u00a0currently in the process of obtaining his Canadian citizenship. He\u2019s also contemplating a move to Portugal, where he already secured a tax ID and a bank account.<\/p>\n

The Make Out Room is on the market for $450,000 while the Latin American Club for $350,000. There\u2019s been a lot of interest so far, and that the businesses will be sold separately. He will start considering offers come July 1.<\/p>\n

Rapalski would\u00a0 love to sell to someone who wants to keep both businesses the way they are, he said, but he\u2019s not putting any official conditions on the sale.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall, it was great,\u201d said Rapalski of his years as a barman. \u201cOf course there were difficulties and things over the 30 years. But I pulled through with my liver intact, and I\u2019m happy to move on now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A pair of Mission District institutions, The Make Out Room at 3225 22nd St. and the Latin American…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356657,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[22459,145267,111539,101,103,102,104,106,105,583],"class_list":["post-356656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-16th-street","tag-make-out-room","tag-mission-buzz","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-valencia-street"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}